Approval of Past Minutes
• The last meeting had been suspended so there were no minutes to approve.

Report on Executive Committee of 8 am:
Committee Reports

• ACRL Report from Leadership (Vivian Fisher). The meeting’s main focus was working on new strategic plan: brainstorming ideas for ACRL to take on, and identifying key points that make ACRL unique. The ACRL plan should parallel ALA’s strategic plan. The Moderator/consultant was very good. The meeting highlighted the ACRL achievements from 2004-2009 – many wonderful things were accomplished. Vivian passed around a copy. As ACRL looks at the next strategic plan, there will be focus groups and discussions and opportunities for input from members. The ACRL Leadership would like to hear from everyone, particularly AFAS members. An important question to consider is: what should ACRL do or stop doing? William pointed out that economic and other forces have called for a push for collaborative activities across sections. AFAS has done this historically. Vivian feels AFAS has done a good job at this. We have been at the forefront of a lot of things; AFAS has been cutting edge.

• 2010 Action Plan update (Vivian Fisher). One of AFAS’s current actions is to recruit students to library schools. As of this date, Vivian got a report from Heather Martin, who will be attending the University of Alabama Birmingham career fair and will be working with library schools. Vivian will talk to the liaison at University of Maryland College Park. Akilah Nosakahare will work on the southwest. Isabel Espinal agreed to work in the Boston, Massachusetts area. AFAS will follow up on the career fairs. We will need packets form ACRL. Debbie will help with that.

If anyone would like a copy of the Action Plan Vivian can provide it. As of this year there will be no more action plans for section funding in ACRL. But funding will be available for projects. ACRL wants to eliminate the time period that sections need to wait to get funding. There is a website with information; units can apply 4 different times for funding in a year. Friends of ACRL have been raising money and have a disbursement fund. Last year they also had money and no one applied. We should let our AFAS committees know that the money is available. Vivian said that this is a good development. If members have good ideas or suggestions, they should pass those on to the board, using the Board Action form. Vivian spoke of the necessity of AFAS having a voice on important issues, e.g. the threat at Howard of closure. Vivian knows the importance of African American resources and our role is to preserve and steward. We as an African American Studies library community have to think about the “What if?” something were to happen to these collections. The pioneers have left their legacies for scholars to do their research. Students go to these collections to get the primary research.

• 2010 Conference Program Committee update Co-Chairs Leroy LeFleur and Johnnie Love worked diligently to come up with a program for 2010 and identify speakers. The theme will be Digitization, Preservation and Open Access to African American collections. It will feature first-hand accounts. What are some of the current projects that are being digitized? How are they being funded and made accessible? How digitization is lessening the need to travel to repositories and thus saving the cost of research. Thanks to companies like ProQuest much material is becoming accessible, in particular newspapers, yet a huge barrier is that many institutions and communities are not able to afford it. Another option for access are open access institutional repositories and online special collections funded by universities and non-profits. The program will be at 8 am Sunday morning at the ALA June conference.

• Membership Committee (Gennice King). As of Nov 2009, AFAS had 238 members: 226 personal, 11 organizational, one corporate. Gennice reported on how many were reinstated, dropped, and renewed. Gennice has the complete list of those that were dropped and those that were reinstated and will communicate with them. Vivian would like to recruit library students to the section. We can bring more people into ACRL and this section. There are academic librarians who are members of ALA but not ACRL, who work on Afro American Studies. An announcement will be made at the Black Caucus meeting to encourage them to join AFAS and ACRL. There are also ways to recruit into the profession through Black Studies programs nationally and locally.

• Nominating Committee – Vivian Fisher will be the Chair of the Nominating Committee. AFAS is looking for members to run for Chair/Vice Chair. Names can be forwarded to Vivian. It’s hard to find people to run. Midwinter is a big commitment – that may be an issue for people to have that commitment for three years. ACRL sections are not required to meet at Midwinter. We can have virtual meetings. There is software that ACRL makes available for this. A lot can be done via software. It’s possible even to have the Annual meeting next year be virtual. However, the consensus was that it might be good to have at least one meeting a year in person. A question that came up in the AFAS Executive Committee meeting was whether there could be a hybrid/mix with an option to participate either online or in person? Rebecca Hankins says that other ACRL committees are using Skype for their meetings, with some people attending in person and others on Skype. Some AFAS members have used Skype and it works. Another possibility is Second Life; a lot of ALA groups seem to use it, but some computers are not good enough for using that and it can be harder to learn. Item was tabled to Annual: an agenda item for June will to decide whether the next Midwinter meeting (2011) will be virtual. It was noted that October/late September is when the call goes out for meeting rooms for Midwinter.

• Policy and Research Committee. In addition to the written report, William Welburn wanted to start a discussion. He is concerned about the state of African American collections. Is there something we should be doing as a section in thinking about how we assess the current state of preservation and digitization of African American materials and what is the likelihood that librarians are going to build careers in this area? Is this something AFAS should think about pursuing? Sarah Brechner, ProQuest rep, had wanted to bring this up also. From the commercial side, what they need is feedback. They don’t want to develop products in a vacuum. The possibility was raised of ProQuest giving librarians access to products in development; not sure if the company would grant this permission. But the company does need expertise. If we can work together that would be great. Nothing is more valuable than an expert telling ProQuest what they want. Generally, it’s pretty silent and the squeaky wheel gets the grease. William was glad to hear that. In his own individual experience he spent several years going though microfilm of the Philadelphia Tribune – a cumbersome process - and all of a sudden it was fully searchable and as a researcher and librarian he would like to provide feedback on that as it represents a significant change in accessibility. Can this section become more active around these issues? New members might be drawn in. It helps if librarians could understand how a company like Proquest works. Sarah was asked if there is movement in the direction of digital microfilm, and how does ProQuest decide what to digitize? AFAS members agreed that cost can be a barrier. Kathleen Bethel also pointed out that some products are not complete. There needs to be a place to have the dialogue and discussion. There should be a consideration in the pricing structure. ProQuest, on the other hand, needs concrete comments from specific libraries. Isabel suggested that there be pricing options, such as a “rent to own” option for very expensive collections. Sarah will take this back to ProQuest. Heather Martin would like the section to discuss such things on the listserv. Kathleen says that when she poses questions she gets no responses. People aren’t responding on the list. Vivian said we need to work on this. Kathleen said maybe a survey would be a better way to get feedback from other librarians. For example, she wanted to develop a collection on black comics. But no one responded. Carol wanted to second this, wondered why people are not active on the list. Carol asked: Does anyone know how the decision was made to allow Google to digitize the Crisis and Johnson? Kathleen: The titles that Google has done is impressive and fills a gap, although there are publications that did not get chosen. AFAS could reach out to Linda Johnson Rice. Kathleen interested in fugitive items like Our World (without having to go to the Shomburg). Our World has never been microfilmed; and other titles as well. Challenge of documenting the serial production of the African American community. William: maybe we need to broaden the understanding of what is needed. Kathleen: what about the papers of Mary Mace Spradling? William: fragile nature of all this, critical that we get more control. William suggests that AFAS present the problem. This is played out nationwide. We need to present the extent of this as a problem. This can guide other projects. We can provide guidance. Elaine Westbrooks pointed out that a lot of African American materials aren’t in Portico, LOCKSS, etc. What about preservation? When you are buying content, what questions are you asking your vendors? This could be taken to ASALH and NCBS. Rebecca will discuss this at NCBS in New Orleans. Sarah from ProQuest gave Black Abolitionist papers as an example. She got feedback from faculty and got two pages of comments. Vivian hopes that AFAS Publications and Access committees can work together on this issue.

• Publications Committee. Heather Martin sent in a report. Heather will schedule an online meeting. The meeting time will be announced on the AFAS discussion list. Website will be available by end of January. The AFAS discussion list has been running smoothly. Idea of posting a monthly topic to encourage discussion. AFAS Facebook group has been used for announcements to group members. Rebecca Hankins continues as newsletter editor and issued the newsletter in online only format in Fall of 2009. It was emailed to members and posted on AFAS wiki and website. No negative comments have been received after going online-only. She wants to know if anyone on the Executive committee has received negative comments. Heather Martin set up the virtual meeting. She can be a test case for the section’s use of virtual meeting software. Next newsletter has to be online by April 12. Thanks members for the information and articles that are being sent. You can send pictures and other information that you could not previously. Vivian says it’s a vehicle for sending information. Please continue to utilize it!

• Future Committee Development. Joyce would like to hear from anyone who wants to be a on a committee. Encourages members to accept being on a committee. She is recruiting committee members right now. We have until February 15 to fill slots for the 2010-2011term.

• Closing remarks from Chair (Vivian Fisher) and other AFAS members.
1. Vivian thanked everyone for a great discussion.
2. Vivian encouraged members to attend the AFAS committee meetings and other AFAS meetings, in particular, Access to African American Content discussion group. On their agenda barriers that limit access to African American content. Making the transition from print to electronic media.
3. Kathleen suggested we use ALA Connect more to keep in touch between conferences; better than email messages.
4. William made a plug for us to publish in Portal and other journals. Kathleen says writers need assistance; that we need a cadre of experienced writers and editors in AFAS who would look at our writing and be gentle with us. William will be glad to look at writings if AFAS members want to submit to Portal. Their award winning article from last year was by Sharon Epps, on African American women and library leadership.
5. Vivian ended by saying that she enjoyed the membership meeting.